News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Scientists have been playing with pure carbon compounds for centuries, starting with diamond and graphite and now with fullerenes, nanotubes and graphene. One type of 3D geometry has been missing, however: a negatively curved carbon-cage surface called schwarzite. UC Berkeley chemists have now shown that serendipitously produced materials called zeolite-templated carbons are in fact the long-sought schwarzites. Their recipe for making schwarzites could make them practical in electronics and gas storage.

Triple-layered nanoarray electrode promises to boost battery performance and enhance other electrochemical processes.

Ethanol and related gasoline replacement fuels produce fewer smog-causing chemicals.

Scientists synchronously incorporated the schemes of anthropogenic water regulation, groundwater lateral flow and the movement of soil frost and thaw fronts into a land surface model, which is then named the Land Surface Model for Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS-LSM). Results suggested that CAS-LSM is a potential tool for studying land surface processes.

Some chemicals used to speed up the breakdown of plants for production of biofuels like ethanol are poison to the yeasts that turn the plant sugars into fuel. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and several Department of Energy laboratories have identified two changes to a single gene that can make the yeast tolerate the pretreatment chemicals.

The batteries of the future may be made out of paper. Researchers at Binghamton University, State University at New York have created a biodegradable, paper-based battery that is more efficient than previously possible.

The Longhouse, a prototype 'mass timber' building designed by an MIT class, demonstrates that even huge buildings can be built primarily with wood.